Vern Poythress's book on the Bible and science is more philosophical
and wishy-washy than most popular books on the subject, and the
philosophical portions seem more wordy than necessary. He tries too
hard to draw analogies between physical laws and the character of God
(p. 307, etc.). It was not clear what his chapter on "A Christian
Approach to Mathematics" addded to the debate.

Poythress indicates a preference for analogical days and a local
flood, although he is symphetic to the Young Earth Creationism and
Intelligent Design positions. He keeps saying, "We can't know for
certain." In support of Intelligent Design, he cites the irreducible
complexity of the bacterial flagellum, which was refuted by, among
others, Kenneth Miller in Dembski & Ruse's "Debating Design," which
was published two years earlier.

In spite of the above comments, the book does have a number of good
insights, an extensive bibliography, subject index and scripture
index, and the footnotes are at the bottom of the page on which they
occur, which ought to be mandated in book publishing.

Paul Bruggink

On Mon, Jun 29, 2009 at 12:28 AM, Merv Bitikofer<mrb22667@kansas.net> wrote:
> Somebody at my school put a copy of "Redeeming Science" by Vern Poythress
> (2006) (Westminster Theological Seminary) in my box. Â And I'm within a few
> chapters of the end of it and have been fairly challenged and impressed,
> even though I would wish to engage the author on some differences,
> particularly over his (IMO) weak conception of MN. Â (Gregory and others here
> would be proud of him since he pretty much almost dismisses MN as PN with a
> thin veneer due to fatal abuse, I guess.)
>
> He seems to prefer (thought not dogmatically exclusively) an "analogical
> day" approach to Genesis 1, and he seems thoroughly committed to a literal
> Adam and Eve. Â He does an excellent job of gently diffusing some of our
> cultural stubbornness against allowing for both Divine action and secondary
> causation as coexisting in a healthy theology.
>
> At the risk of not having yet read the final chapters, I would already apply
> this to somebody's earlier quest on books to recommend to YECs or anybody
> else interested in science/theology issues, for that matter.
> (Frustratingly to some I imagine, Poythress refuses to shut the door on
> young-earth possibilities, but perhaps that makes his book all the more
> accessible to the wider theological audience. Â He doesn't slam it on TEists
> either.)
>
> --Merv
>
>
>
>
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Received on Mon Jun 29 17:19:47 2009